A Place to be Known 

A firm understanding of a child’s approach to learning is grounded in a developmentally informed and compassionate practice. At CCC, teachers think deeply about who each child is: What helps a child learn? What gets in the way of a child’s learning? What do they feel strongly about? How do they attempt to get what they want? Teachers orient themselves to come from a place of understanding, using emotional communication to help children enlist adults as allies. 

Play is the Work of the Child

Play is essential to the formation of the child. It is the laboratory where children get to experiment, try on new ideas, have conflicts, have setbacks and recover, and develop empathy and understanding. At CCC, teachers plan experiences that are responsive to the feelings, interests, and curiosities that children are exploring and encountering in play. Children are at the center of all that the teacher does as the observer, facilitator, and documenter of their learning. 

A Child's Pace

CCC is a unique invitation to slow down. School days are often filled to the brim with activity, set with the expectation that children will just have to adapt to tedious schedules and overly-planned agendas. At CCC, the schedule is there to support the children, not the other way around. Inherent to the principles of process learning, we believe that a child’s pace should set the rhythm for our days. This can be seen in our daily commitment to carve out lengthy time for play and transitions.

Process Learning

Particularly in a group context, learning is both exciting and frustrating. There is meaningful and lasting growth when adults invite children to step inside the problem with us, to look at its contours, feel its discomfort and uncover the sticking points for those involved. Through group process learning, a collaborative approach facilitated by a skilled teacher, children are regularly invited to identify and explore the feelings that emerge and choices available when issues inherent to learning inevitably arise.